Looking beyond the moral panics about youth

Drugs, violence and
laziness – if you believe everything you hear in the media, young people have a
lot to answer for. However, sociologist and Newcastle Youth Studies Group co-convenor, Dr
Steven Threadgold, is ardent about uncovering the entire picture and
contributing to a better understanding of the next generation.

"Newcastle Youth Studies group has come together to do
research with and about young people – and the 'with' part is really important.
So they're not treated as objects, they're actuallyparticipants," said Dr
Threadgold.

Through his work, Dr Threadgold aims to inform government,
youth workers and educators with a more nuanced picture of the social forces
that are producing issues, such as unemployment and underemployment, for young
people.

"A lot of the ways that young people are spoken about and
treated, particularly in media representations of them, are really just
stereotypes. They are often scapegoated for a whole lot of social problems that
they have absolutely no control over and often those social problems are
pathologised as individual issues."

"Take the youth labour market as an example – it's around 15
per cent unemployment and it's massively casualised. However, if you're a young
person who doesn't have a job it's your fault, you're lazy and you don't have
the right qualifications – which is a distortion of reality."

Dr Threadgold's particular area of interest is youth
inequality and class. "My previous research has been about how inequality affects
young people's life chances and their attitudes to the future."

He is currently working on two interrelated projects.
The first, Do it Yourself Careers,
looks at young people involved in DIY cultures around music – particularly punk
and noise styles.

"There are three outcomes – they end up being
hobbyists, or they earn a little bit of money on the side of their real job or
they make it into their real job," he said, referring to the young musicians. "I'm
doing work around the blurriness of those categories, how these people think of
themselves and what kind of strategies they put in place to try and get some
kind of income."

"Connected to this is who's in and who's out. So my
second project is a media analysis of the notions of Hipster and Bogan and the
way these are class categories without talking about class."

His book on these issues: Youth, Culture and Class, which will be published by Routledge, is
due to be released in 2016.

Dr Threadgold hopes his work will inform more
realistic policy, rather than policy that doesn't deal with the reality young
people face in an ever increasing precarious labour market.

Most
people are still working on the assumption that you go to school, you go
through some sort of tertiary education and then you get a job and that's the
end of the transition

"Most people are still working on the assumption that you go
to school, you go through some sort of tertiary education and then you get a
job and that's the end of the transition," said Dr Threadgold.

"I would like to
create a package of information for educationalists and youth workers – so they
can get a proper grasp of how the labour market really works today."

After starting at the University of Newcastle in 2010, Dr
Threadgold began to gain international interest for his work in youth
sociology. Along with fellow Newcastle researcher and renowned youth
sociologist, Professor Pam Nilan, Dr Threadgold was invited to present his
findings at a number of conferences and symposiums.

On the back of this activity, Dr Threadgold and Professor
Nilan brought together colleagues Dr David Farrugia; Dr Julia Coffey; Dr Hedda
Askland; Dr Lena Rodriguez; and Conjoint Professor Andy Furlong, from the
University of Glasgow, to form Newcastle Youth Studies Group.

"We all complement each other in the theoretical stuff that
we do and in our methodologies, but there is also quite a variety in there as
well so we work really well as a team," said Dr Threadgold.

Through collaborative work, Newcastle Youth Studies
Group has established research expertise in issues, such as: young people and
social change; identity and belonging; health and wellbeing; geographical and
spatial inequalities; intergenerational issues; displacement and movement; and,
education and work.

Career Summary

Biography

Steven Threadgold is Head of Discipline, Sociology and Anthropology, in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at University of Newcastle. He was convenor of the TASA Sociology of Youth thematic group from 2011 to 2013 and Academic Editor of Youth Studies Australia in 2011-12. Steve’s research interests focus on inequality and youth, especially the interplay between class, risks and governmental discourses. He is especially interested in new forms of cultural and symbolic capitals that shape inequalities both within nation states and between them. Recent research projects have investigated the recruitment and experiences of young Balinese in the global cruise ship industry; the emergence of DIY subcultural careers; and a longitudinal study that is investigating whether the ambitions some young Australians nominated in high school have come to fruition, whether the obstacles they identified have blocked their progress towards life goals and the unforeseen ‘game changing moments’ in their lives. His latest work analyses the ways floating signifiers such as ‘hipster’ and ‘bogan’ elicit the formations of class distinctions in youth cultures whilst eschewing the very notion of class.

Research ExpertiseSociology of youth; socio-economic inequality; social and cultural theories of class; risk, individualisation and reflexivity; consumerism; popular music and popular culture; media; sport; environmental issues; social theory, in particular the works of Pierre Bourdieu.

Qualifications

PhD (Sociology/Anthropology), University of Newcastle

Bachelor of Arts, University of Newcastle

Bachelor of Arts (Honours), University of Newcastle

Keywords

Bourdieu

Class

Consumerism

Inequality

Introductory Sociology

Popular Culture

Social Theory

Social theory

Society and Culture

Sociology

Youth

Youth Culture

Youth Sociology

Youth Transitions

Fields of Research

Code

Description

Percentage

160899

Sociology not elsewhere classified

100

Professional Experience

UON Appointment

Title

Organisation / Department

Senior Lecturer

University of NewcastleSchool of Humanities and Social ScienceAustralia

Academic appointment

Dates

Title

Organisation / Department

1/01/2013 -

Editorial Board - Journal of Youth Studies

Journal of Youth StudiesAustralia

1/01/2011 -

Editorial Board - Youth Studies Australia

Youth Studies AustraliaAustralia

1/01/2010 -

Lecturer

University of NewcastleSchool of Humanities and Social ScienceAustralia

1/01/2008 -

Editorial Board - The Australian Sociological Association

The Australian Sociological Association (TASA)Australia

Awards

Recognition

Year

Award

2012

Well Regarded Lecturer AwardUniversity of Newcastle

2011

Well Regarded Lecturer AwardUniversity of Newcastle

2009

Research Higher Degree Publications AwardUniversity of Newcastle

2009

Excellence Award for TeachingUniversity of Newcastle - Faculty of Education and Arts

2008

Student Forum Nomination for 'Lecturers of High Regard'University of Newcastle - Faculty of Education and Arts

Should I pitch my tent in the middle ground?" A Reflexive Response to Woodman's Middling Tendency in Youth SociologyOrganisation: he Australian Sociological Association (TASA)
Description:
Threadgold, S. (2009) '"Should I pitch my tent in the middle ground?" A Reflexive Response to Woodman's Middling Tendency in Youth Sociology'. The Australian Sociological Association (TASA) December 2009, Australian National University, Canberra.

2008

Youth, Habitus and Perceptions of RiskOrganisation: The Australian Sociological Association (TASA)
Description:
Threadgold, S. (2008) 'Youth, Habitus and Perceptions of Risk'. The Australian Sociological Association (TASA) Conference December 2008, University of Melbourne, Melbourne.

Journal article (8 outputs)

Year

Citation

Altmetrics

Link

2012

Threadgold SR, ''I reckon my life will be easy, but my kids will be buggered': Ambivalence in young people's positive perceptions of individual futures and their visions of environmental collapse', Journal of Youth Studies, 15 17-32 (2012) [C1]

Threadgold S, 'Review of S. Taylor (2006) False Prophet: Field Notes from the Punk Underground', Perfect Beat: the Pacific journal of research into contemporary music and popular culture (2006) [C3]

2004

Threadgold S, 'Review of J. DeRogatis 'Milk It! Collected Musings on the Alternative Music Explosion of the 90s'', Perfect Beat: the Pacific journal of research into contemporary music and popular culture (2004) [C3]

Threadgold SR, 'Parody and Satire as Sites of Affective Inequalities: The Figures of Hipster and Bogan', Emerging Priorities in the Sociology of Youth, TASA Youth Thematic Group Symposium, University of Melbourne (2013) [E3]

Threadgold SR, 'Ambivalence and distinction in young people's perceptions of risk', The Second ISA Forum of Sociology: Social Justice & Democratization Book of Abstracts, Buenos Aires (2012) [E3]

2012

Threadgold SR, 'Cosmopolitan class? Cruise ship training and employment in South East Asia and transnational class inequality', The Second ISA Forum of Sociology: Social Justice & Democratization Book of Abstracts, Buenos Aires (2012) [E3]

Threadgld S, Kirby E, Germov J, 'Local Lives/Global Networks. Edited Volume of Proceedings of the Australian Sociological Association Conference. The University of Newcastle: Australia. ISBN: 978-0-646-56779-', Proceedings of the Australian Sociological Association Conference. The University of Newcastle: Australia, The University of Newcastle: Australia (2011) [E3]

News

The Youth Outside the Northern Metropole symposium will bring together
international researchers in the area of youth studies to articulate the key concerns
for urban, regional and rural young people in Australia and the Pacific region.

Dr Steven Threadgold

Position

Senior LecturerSchool of Humanities and Social ScienceFaculty of Education and Arts